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Enacted via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the qualified business income deduction, or QBI, is worth up to 20% of eligible revenue, subject to limitations.
That tax break is scheduled to expire after 2025 without changes from Congress, which could affect millions of filers.
“It’s something that is very important to a lot of privately held businesses,” said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

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Tax breaks worth trillions of dollars are scheduled to expire after 2025 without extension from Congress — including a hefty deduction for millions of self-employed filers and business owners.  
Enacted by former President Donald Trump, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created the qualified business income deduction, or QBI, which is worth up to 20% of eligible revenue, subject to limitations.

The temporary deduction applies to so-called pass-through businesses, which report income at the individual level, such as sole proprietors, partnerships and S-corporations, along with some trusts and estates. 
“The hope is that this gets extended because it’s going to be very disruptive for a lot of business owners” if the tax break is allowed to expire, said Dan Ryan, a tax partner at law firm Sullivan and Worcester.
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Lawmakers added the temporary QBI deduction to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to create tax rates for pass-through businesses that are similar to tax rates for corporations.
But while the QBI deduction will sunset after 2025, the legislation permanently reduced corporate taxes by dropping the top federal rate from 35% to 21%.

For tax year 2021, the most recent data available, there were roughly 25.9 million QBI claims, up from 18.7 million in 2018, the first year the tax break was available, according to the IRS. 
“It’s something that is very important to a lot of privately held businesses,” said Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

An extension would be ‘fairly pricey’

As the 2025 tax cliff approaches, there have been “very strong feelings” about whether to extend the QBI deduction, according to Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst and modeling manager at the Tax Foundation.  
Business advocates say the deduction promotes growth and have pushed to make the tax break permanent. Meanwhile, some policy experts and lawmakers point to the high cost and the deduction’s complexity.
The QBI deduction is “fairly pricey,” with an estimated 10-year cost of more than $700 billion, Watson said. That could pose a challenge amid debate over the federal budget deficit.

Other critics say the QBI deduction primarily benefits the wealthy because higher earners are more likely to have pass-through income. However, there are millions of middle-income taxpayers also claiming the deduction, according to IRS data.
Watson said some Democrats are eager to see the tax break expire, “but that runs right into the president’s tax pledge.”
White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard in June reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s promise to extend Trump’s tax breaks only for those making less than $400,000. More

The Social Security Administration is upgrading its “my Social Security” personal accounts online.
The goal is to provide a simpler login experience and more secure online access, the agency said.
But first, some users may have to log in and transition their current accounts.

zimmytws | iStock | Getty Images

The Social Security Administration is updating its online services.
To make sure you can continue to access your account, the agency is urging you to log in, particularly if you created your online “my Social Security” account before Sept. 18, 2021. These account holders will soon have to transition to a Login.gov account to access online Social Security services.

The online “my Social Security” accounts enable both beneficiaries and people who are not yet receiving benefits to access services, including requesting Social Security card replacements, estimating future benefits, checking on the status of benefit applications and managing current benefits.
The online services aim to save time for both current and future beneficiaries, as well as the Social Security Administration, as the agency grapples with long wait times for its national 800 phone number. The average speed to answer those calls was about 36 minutes in the second quarter, according to the Social Security Administration. The agency is working to bring that average wait time down to 12 minutes by the end of September 2025.

How to make sure your account is up to date More

“Rentvesting” means that someone rents their primary residence while trying to enter the housing market by buying a home they can afford elsewhere.
However, there are a few considerations to make before jumping in.

Oscar Wong | Moment | Getty Images

Not every renter wanting to buy a home dreams of ditching their lease. Some wish to remain tenants even as they become landlords.
The concept behind “rentvesting” is that an individual rents their primary residence in one city and then buys an investment property somewhere else that they let out as a short- or long-term rental, according to Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.

“It can be a good way to get into the property market,” she said, especially if you live in a city where home prices are out of your budget.
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That said, becoming a landlord at a distance can be tricky, and rentvesting may be trickier for a first-time homeowner than buying a property they intend to live in.
“There are some costs involved you’ll want to make sure that you research and consider before you get in,” said Hale.

When ‘rentvesting’ can make sense

Rentvesting may be an option for someone who has a relatively high income from a job in a major city where rents are high and home prices are even higher, said Hale. She said these individuals might have room in their budget to save but find it too expensive to buy a home in their metro area.

“So they would look for a less expensive market where their savings might be able to translate into a nice down payment,” said Hale.
Small investors, or those with up to 10 investment properties, made up 62.6% of investor purchases in the first quarter of 2024, according to a recent report from Realtor.com. That figure represents the highest share of small investor activity in the data’s history, going back to 2001.
Hale said the data does not necessarily distinguish whether the small investors are rentvestors. It also doesn’t specify whether they own their primary residence or a second rental home.
“There’s a lot of concern about big investors getting into the single-family home space and competing with owner-occupants,” she said. “Although big investors have been making headway and growing their share, they’re still a relatively small share of the overall landlord population in the United States.”

Some shifts in the market in buyers’ favor may also benefit rentvestors.
Mortgage rates have dropped to 6.85% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the lowest level since March, according to a new analysis by real estate brokerage site Redfin.
“Somebody with a $3,000-a-month budget can now spend $20,000 more on a home for that same budget,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.
She said lower rates are going to be “welcome news” for rentvesters looking for a mortgage. But it will be important to keep in mind that rental prices are coming down as more supply comes on the market.
“They might have a hard time filling it with a tenant if there are other properties down the street that are renting for less,” said Fairweather.
“Rents are going up a little bit, but not all that quickly, and they’re actually falling in parts of the country where a lot of new supply is coming online,” she said.

5 questions to ask yourself before rentvesting

While rentvesting can be an opportunity to become a homeowner, those who want to try that path must consider all the pros and cons. Here are five questions to ask:
1. Does this strategy work for the property I want to buy?
Take stock of the short-term rental regulations of the town, city and state you’re considering, as some areas can have rules that limit or even prohibit rental activity. As you narrow your search to particular properties, be aware that some homeowner’s associations and condo or co-op boards can have regulations limiting rentals, too.
2. Do I need to hire a property manager?
If you want to become a landlord, you could either manage the home or apartment on your own or hire a property manager to serve as the middleman between you and the tenant.
About 55% of small-portfolio rental owners hire a property manager because they don’t live near their rental property, according to the State of the Property Management Industry Report by Buildium, a property management software company. The site polled 1,885 property management professionals in May and June 2023. 
However, hiring a property manager comes at a cost, which depends on factors such as the property location and services provided. Property manager fees can reach up to 25% of the monthly rent price, depending on the specifications, according to Apartment List.
3. Can I afford all the costs associated with homeownership?
Buying a property goes beyond affording the down payment, closing costs and monthly mortgage. You must also consider property taxes, insurance and maintenance, among other expenses.
Having a clear understanding of what those dollar figures might look like now and how they might change over time is key, especially in an area you’re less familiar with.
After you assess all the factors involved, then you can figure out whether renting out the home is enough to cover your expenses.
4. How much competition will you have?
You may have more competition with other landlords or rentals if you’re getting into the rental market right now, said Fairweather, especially in places like the South, where more new builds are becoming available.
“Pay attention to rental trends,” said Fairweather.
Rent prices are increasing in coastal areas. But in regions like the South, they’re coming down. That’s good news for renters, “but not good news if you’re a property owner,” said Fairweather.

5. Can you afford a vacancy?
Short-term rentals include perks such as the ability to use the property yourself and more flexible pricing based on seasonal demand. But high vacancy throughout the year can be a drawback, said Hale.
In slower periods, you could end up paying for two monthly housing payments: the rent price of your primary residence and the mortgage payment for the investment property.
The monthly mortgage payment on the typical $400,000 U.S. home is about $2,647 with the current 6.85% mortgage rate, according to Redfin. Check to make sure that you can potentially afford this on top of your own monthly rent.

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Everything from private student loans, car loans, mortgages and credit cards will be impacted once the Federal Reserve starts lowering interest rates.
Here’s how to position your finances for the months ahead.

Recent signs that inflation is easing have paved the way for the Federal Reserve to start lowering interest rates as soon as this fall.
The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, dipped in June for the first time in more than four years, the Labor Department reported last week.

“With abundant signs of a cooling economy, the consumer price index for June certainly constitutes the ‘more good data’ on inflation that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said we need to see before the Fed can begin cutting interest rates,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
With a fall rate cut looking more likely now, households may finally get some relief from the sky-high borrowing costs that followed the most recent series of interest rate hikes, which took the Fed’s benchmark rate to the highest level in decades.
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Fed officials signaled they expect to reduce its benchmark rate once in 2024 and four additional times in 2025.
The federal funds rate, which is set by the U.S. central bank, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. Although that’s not the rate consumers pay, the Fed’s moves still affect the rates they see every day on things such as private student loans and credit cards.

“If you are a consumer, now is the time to say, what does my spending look like? Where would my money grow the most and what options do I have?” said Leslie Tayne, an attorney specializing in debt relief at Tayne Law in New York and author of “Life & Debt.”
Here are three key strategies to consider:

1. Watch your variable-rate debt

With a rate cut, the prime rate lowers, too, and the interest rates on variable-rate debt — such as credit cards, adjustable-rate mortgages and some private student loans — are likely to follow, reducing your monthly payments.
For example, credit card holders could see a reduction in their annual percentage yield, or APR, within a billing cycle or two. But even then, APRs will only ease off extremely high levels.
Rather than wait for a small adjustment in the months ahead, borrowers could switch now to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a personal loan, Tayne said.

Olga Rolenko | Moment | Getty Images

Many homeowners with ARMs, which are pegged to a variety of indexes such as the prime rate, Libor or the 11th District Cost of Funds, may see their interest rate go down as well — although not immediately as ARMs generally reset just once a year.
In the meantime, there are fewer options to provide homeowners with extra breathing room. “Your better move may be waiting to refinance,” McBride said.
Private student loans also tend to have a variable rate tied to the prime, Treasury bill or another rate index, which means once the Fed starts cutting interest rates, the interest rates on those private student loans will start dropping.
Eventually, borrowers with existing variable-rate private student loans may also be able to refinance into a less expensive fixed-rate loan, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. 
Currently, the fixed rates on a private refinance are as low as 5% and as high as 11%, Kantrowitz said.

2. Lock in savings rates

While borrowing will become less expensive, those lower interest rates will hurt savers. 
Since rates on online savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit are all poised to go down, experts say this is the time to lock in some of the highest returns in decades.
For now, top-yielding online savings accounts and one-year CDs are paying more than 5% — well above the rate of inflation.

The opportunity to earn 5% annually on those cash investments may not last much longer.

Howard Hook
wealth advisor with EKS Associates

“One thing you may want to do is consider investing any idle cash you have into a higher-yielding money market fund,” said certified financial planner Howard Hook, a senior wealth advisor at EKS Associates in Princeton, New Jersey.
“Money market brokerage accounts usually pay higher rates than money market or savings accounts at banks,” he said in an emailed statement. “If the Fed is indeed looking to reduce rates five times over the next eighteen months (as currently projected), then the opportunity to earn 5% annually on those cash investments may not last much longer.”

3. Put off large purchases

If you’re planning a major purchase, like a home or car, then it may pay to wait, since lower interest rates could reduce the cost of financing down the road.
“Timing your purchase to coincide with lower rates can save money over the life of the loan,” Tayne said.
Although mortgage rates are fixed and tied to Treasury yields and the economy, they’ve already started to come down from recent highs, largely due to the prospect of a Fed-induced economic slowdown. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is now just above 7%, according to Bankrate.
However, lower mortgage rates could also boost homebuying demand, which would push prices higher, McBride said. “If lower mortgage rates lead to a surge in prices, that’s going to offset the affordability benefit for would-be buyers.”

When it comes to auto loans, there’s no question inflation has hit financing costs — and vehicle prices — hard. The average rate on a five-year new car loan is now nearly 8%, according to Bankrate.
But in this case, “the financing is one variable, and it’s frankly one of the smaller variables,” McBride said. For example, a quarter percentage point reduction in rates on a $35,000, five-year loan is $4 a month, he calculated.
In this case, and in many other situations as well, consumers would benefit more from improving their credit scores, which could pave the way to even better loan terms, McBride said.

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Project 2025, a collection of policy recommendations “for an effective conservative administration,” proposes an overhaul of the federal government.
The proposals include cuts to food stamps and federal student loan forgiveness programs, tax bracket changes and a rate cut for high-income investors.
While some of the changes pitched in Project 2025 could happen via executive action, many would need congressional approval, which could prove difficult in a divided government. 

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, June 22, 2024, in Philadelphia. Trump is seeking to distance himself from a plan for a massive overhaul of the federal government drafted by some of his administration officials.
Chris Szagola | AP

As the presidential election heats up, both parties are talking about Project 2025, a collection of policy plans developed by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in conjunction with more than 100 other right-leaning organizations.
If enacted, Project 2025 would bring major changes to Americans’ finances.

Aiming to “pave the way for an effective conservative administration,” the roughly 900-page “mandate” proposes an overhaul of the federal government and sweeping policy changes that would affect families’ taxes, savings and more. The Heritage Foundation launched the project in 2022 and published the policy collection in April 2023.
President Joe Biden and Democrats have pointed to Project 2025 as an example of what a second term from former President Donald Trump could look like. Biden has a page on his campaign website about the project, describing it “as a blueprint for Trump to implement.”
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However, in recent weeks, Trump has made statements distancing himself from the policy proposals.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it,” Trump wrote on July 11 in a Truth Social post.

Yet while Trump may not embrace the treatise, its creators have certainly embraced Trump. Several people who formerly worked for Trump were involved in creating the playbook, and a recently resurfaced video from April 2022 shows Trump speaking at a Heritage Foundation gala about the group’s plans.
“This is a great group,” Trump can be seen saying, “and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“As we’ve been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign,” a spokesperson from Project 2025 said in a statement. “We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president.”
“But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement,” the organization said.
Project 2025’s spokesperson said they were unavailable to comment on specific proposals.
While some of the changes proposed in Project 2025 could happen via executive action, many would need congressional approval, which could prove difficult in a divided government.
Here are some of the plans that would affect household finances.

Cuts to food benefits

The project calls for a number of reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, a federal government program that provides money for low-income people to buy food for themselves and their families.
Under one proposal in Project 2025, more recipients could face work requirements in order to receive their benefits. Another plan calls for closing the “loophole” in which people can enroll in food stamps if they’re already receiving another benefit, such as help through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.
The Biden administration’s move to increase food stamps for households during the pandemic is described as “a dramatic overreach” by the project writers. They also call on the next conservative president to “reject efforts to transform federal school meals into an entitlement program.”

“SNAP/EBT Food Stamp Benefits Accepted” is displayed on a screen inside a Family Dollar Stores Inc. store in Chicago, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

These changes would have devastating impacts on families, said Salaam Bhatti, the SNAP director at The Food Research & Action Center.
“Cutting this vital component of our safety net would increase poverty-related, preventable hunger, result in poor health outcomes, increase health-care costs and lower academic performance among students whose families rely on SNAP to put food on the table,” Bhatti said.

An end to student loan forgiveness

Project 2025 calls for drastic cuts to the U.S. Department of Education’s loan forgiveness programs for federal student loan borrowers.
It would eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness initiative, which provides debt cancellation to nonprofit and government workers after a decade of payments, and the Borrower Defense regulation, which offers a way for defrauded students to get debt relief.
The Biden administration’s new repayment plan for student loan borrowers, known as SAVE, would also come to an end under the project’s provisions.
“If Donald Trump is given the chance to implement this right-wing manifesto, it will wreak havoc on the economic stability of millions of student loan borrowers and their families,” said Aissa Canchola Banez, the political director for Protect Borrowers Action.

A ‘simple two-rate individual tax system’

After 2025, dozens of provisions enacted by Trump via the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, are scheduled to sunset, including lower federal income tax brackets, a bigger standard deduction, boosted child tax credit and higher estate and gift tax exemptions, among others. 
While Trump has called for full TCJA extensions, Project 2025 proposes a “simple two-rate individual tax system” of a flat 15% and 30%. The latter would kick in around the Social Security wage base, which is $168,600 for 2024.
The plan would also eliminate most deductions, credits and exclusions, including tax breaks for state and local taxes and education.

If it were enacted, some taxpayers would pay more and some would owe less, depending on their current income, credits, deductions and exclusions, explained Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
The second phase could include some type of consumption tax, levied on goods and services, such as a national sales tax, business transfer tax or others, the plan outlined.
But historically, “consumption taxes get no traction in Congress,” Gleckman said.

‘Substantial cut’ to taxes on investment income

Project 2025 would reduce the tax on capital gains and qualified dividends for higher earners. The top rate is currently 20%, and the proposal calls for 15%.
The plan would also eliminate the so-called net investment income tax, or NIIT, an extra 3.8% levy on assets once modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI, exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married couples filing together. Including the NIIT, top earners currently pay a combined 23.8% on capital gains.
If enacted, the proposal would represent “a substantial cut in taxes for people who make their money in investments,” Gleckman said.

Adding ‘universal savings accounts’

Although retirement isn’t a primary focus for Project 2025, the plan calls for “universal savings accounts,” or USAs, with a yearly after-tax contribution limit of $15,000, indexed for inflation.  
The tax treatment would be similar to Roth individual retirement accounts, which offer tax-free withdrawals of earnings after age 59½, with some exceptions. By comparison, USAs would be “highly flexible” for investments, and gains could be withdrawn “at any time for any purpose,” according to the plan.

While some policy experts support USAs, others argue lower earners struggle with voluntary retirement contributions and likely wouldn’t benefit from the proposed higher annual limits. 
“The top one-third is well taken care of,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “We don’t need to provide any more subsidized savings for that group.”  
In a July 9 post on X, Project 2025 said the plan does not advocate for cuts to Social Security.
But the mandate describes balancing the federal budget as a “mission-critical objective.”
With growing concerns over the solvency of the Social Security trust fund, “there’s no way those two statements are consistent,” Munnell said.
The Social Security trust fund has a projected depletion date in 2035, the annual trustees’ report showed in May. This could result in a benefit cut of at least 20% by that date without action from Congress. More

For most college hopefuls, issues with the FAFSA forced a practical approach to this year’s complicated admission season.
One recent study found that 76% of students said the financial aid amount awarded to them, and the overall financial aid process, was the top driver in their choice about where to go to college.
These high school seniors all chose the best offer over the best school.

Ramon Montiel-García, 18, a graduate of KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy in Colorado.
Credit: Ramon Montiel-García

Ramon Montiel-García, a newly minted high school graduate from KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy in Colorado, was accepted to his first-choice school, Wheaton College in Massachusetts. 
However, with a sticker price of nearly $80,000 per year, including tuition, fees, and room and board, Montiel-García, like many college hopefuls, needed financial aid to bring the cost down.

But also like his peers, Montiel-García struggled with the new federal financial-aid application.
Although his parents have lived in the U.S. since 2001, they are both undocumented and don’t have Social Security numbers, which was one of the many issues that dogged users of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. In the meantime, Montiel-García honed a back-up plan.
His FAFSA application was ultimately accepted in late April — well after the late December launch following another monthslong delay. Still, he said the aid package he received from Wheaton was not enough to make ends meet.
“I would have to have paid $11,000 a semester, which is still a lot of money for me and my family,” he said.
Instead of attending Wheaton, Montiel-García instead enrolled at the nearby University of Colorado in Denver. He plans to live at home to keep costs down.

“I’m kind of disappointed I wasn’t able to go to that school, but maybe it was for the best,” he said.

The FAFSA is still an obstacle

Even in ordinary years, how students choose a college largely hinges on the amount of financial aid offered and the breakdown among grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities and student loans.
However, in 2024, a botched FAFSA rollout heightened the critical role of aid in college choices. Because of problems with the new form, financial aid award letters were delayed and some high school seniors, like Montiel-García, had trouble applying for any aid at all.
As of June 28, only 46% of new high school graduates have completed the FAFSA, according to the National College Attainment Network, or NCAN. A year ago, that number was 53%.

Submitting a FAFSA is one of the best predictors of whether a high school senior will go on to college, NCAN also found. Seniors who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to enroll in college directly after high school, according to an NCAN study of 2013 data. 
The FAFSA serves as the gateway to all federal aid money, including loans, work study and grants, the latter of which is the most desirable kind of assistance because it typically does not need to be repaid.

FAFSA issues forced hard choices

About three-quarters, or 76%, of students said the financial aid amount awarded to them, and the overall financial aid process, were the top drivers in their choice about where to go to college, according to a survey by Ellucian and EMI Research Solutions conducted in March.
That outpaces parental influence, location, campus culture — and even the degree programs offered.
“This year, we are just seeing such deep concerns around college costs, more than in the past couple of years,” Robert Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review, which recently ranked colleges by how much financial aid is awarded, told CNBC. “There is a stress level that is palpable.”
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Higher education already costs more than most families can afford, and college costs are still rising. Tuition and fees, plus room and board, for a four-year private college averaged $56,190 in the 2023-2024 school year; at four-year, in-state public colleges, it was $24,030 per year, according to the College Board.

Experts predicted that problems with the new FAFSA would weigh heavily on enrollment, although it was initially unclear how much of a role it would play in decisions between schools.
Ellucian’s study found that 44% of the 1,500 students surveyed said they’d switch their top-choice school if offered just $5,000 more in aid.
“It’s a surprisingly small amount when you look at the total cost,” Ellucian CEO Laura Ipsen said of the difference that award money made in the decision-making process.

The FAFSA’s impact on decision-making

The challenge this year “was not only about the financial aid piece, which is huge, but comparing different offers coming in at different times,” said Eric Greenberg, president of Greenberg Educational Group, a New York-based consulting firm. “It did have a big impact on the way people made decisions.”
In previous years, financial aid award letters were sent out at about the same time as admission letters, meaning students had several weeks to compare offers ahead of National College Decision Day, the deadline for most admitted students to decide on a college.

Because of the extensive delays this year, some students won’t get their final financial aid award letter until the end of August, the U.S. Department of Education said in a recent update.
Andrea Garcia, 18, is still waiting on that letter although she already committed to Emory University in Atlanta — and put down a deposit. Because her parents, like Montiel-García’s, are also undocumented, she said the aid application process was problematic from the start.
“My parents were very stressed and, in a way, felt kind of guilty because of the system,” she said.
As for now, Garcia is still considering her fallback, which entails staying closer to her home in Denver: “If Emory doesn’t fit my financial needs, I will enroll in a regional school that offers a full ride.”
Because of such delays, some students may even start their fall semester before they get key information about how much that’s going to cost, according to higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
This also marks “the first admission” by the Education Department that the FAFSA won’t be fully functional until after the start of the 2024-25 award year, which began July 1, he said.

Filling the gap with other sources of aid

Greenberg advises the students he works with to explore other sources of merit-based aid, as much as possible.
For Ky-mani Murphy, 18, that approach is what made the difference.
The high school graduate from Riverdale Park, Maryland, secured enough additional funding from the Maryland College Aid Processing System to afford his top choice school: Towson University.
“I really wanted to go to Towson,” he said.
But after his award package from the school was delayed and then came in below his expectation, Murphy said he nearly lost hope.
“At that point, I was like, ‘Wow my going to college might not work,'” he said.
With the added state-based aid, Murphy is on track to join Towson’s freshman class this fall with plans to study computer science.
“I am just really grateful that I have the opportunity to go to a good college,” he said. “I am really excited to see what’s going to come.”

‘I didn’t want to obtain a lot of debt’

For most students, though, the FAFSA fallout comes on top of an already complicated college admission season and concerns about student loans forced a compromise.
Right from the start, Chase Hartman, 18, said he was more focused on scholarships than even the college applications themselves. Still, the recent graduate was accepted into 17 schools, including his top choice, Duke University.
“I did get accepted into Duke, but I was only able to get a year’s worth of scholarships,” he said. Ultimately, that was the deciding factor.
Hartman, who is from Tampa, Florida, qualified for the state’s Bright Futures college scholarship program as well as a Lombardi award, which brought his in-state cost of attendance to the University of Florida down to essentially zero. He’ll start there in the fall.
“I didn’t want to obtain a lot of debt in my undergraduate education, because I am also considering going to law school or getting my MBA,” he said.

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Walmart trailers sit in storage at a Walmart Distribution Center in Hurricane, Utah on May 30, 2024.
George Frey | Afp | Getty Images

Dividend-paying stocks can enhance investors’ portfolio returns and provide certainty in shaky markets.
Investors can track Wall Street analysts’ ratings to select stocks of dividend-paying companies that have attractive growth prospects, which could boost earnings and cash flows to support higher dividends.

Here are three attractive dividend stocks, according to Wall Street’s top experts on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
Northern Oil and Gas
This week’s first dividend stock is Northern Oil and Gas (NOG). The company engages in the acquisition, exploration and production of oil and natural gas properties, mainly in the Williston, Permian and Appalachian basins.
NOG paid a dividend of 40 cents per share for the first quarter, reflecting an 18% year-over-year increase. The stock offers a dividend yield of 4.1%. The company also enhanced shareholder returns through stock buybacks worth $20 million in Q1 2024.
NOG recently announced an agreement to acquire a 20% undivided stake in the Uinta Basin assets of XCL Resources for $510 million. The deal will be made in partnership with SM Energy.
Reacting to the news, RBC Capital analyst Scott Hanold reiterated a buy rating on NOG stock with a price target of $46. Following discussions with management, the analyst noted that similar to NOG’s strategy in the Permian and Williston Basins, there is a possibility of further expansion in the Uinta Basin through additional deals.

Hanold said the deal was in line with NOG’s strategy of collaborating with high-quality operators like SM Energy to capture lucrative opportunities. “This is NOG’s fourth large JV [joint venture] and meaningfully adds to its diversity, returns, and inventory runway,” he said.
The analyst boosted his 2025 earnings per share and cash flow per share estimates by 11% to 12% and increased his free cash flow per share forecast by 10%, given that the XCL deal is significantly accretive. He thinks that the solid free cash flow outlook could enable NOG to hike its base dividend. Hanold estimates a 10% to 15% increase in dividend in 2025.    
Hanold ranks No. 23 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 67% of the time, delivering an average return of 26.7%. (See NOG Stock Buybacks on TipRanks)  
JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase (JPM), the largest U.S. bank by assets, is the next dividend pick. Last month, the bank announced its plans to increase its dividend by about 9% to $1.25 per share for the third quarter of 2024. JPM offers a dividend yield of 2.2%.
JPM highlighted that this potential increase in the Q3 dividend would mark the second dividend hike this year. In March 2024, the bank announced an increase in its dividend to $1.15 per share from $1.05. Moreover, JPM’s board has authorized a new share repurchase program of $30 billion, effective July 1, to boost shareholder returns.
Recently, RBC Capital analyst Gerard Cassidy reaffirmed a buy rating on JPM stock with a price target of $211. The analyst cited several reasons for his bullish investment thesis, including a strong management team, JPM’s impressive business lines that rank among the top three in the banking space and a robust balance sheet.
“We believe that as the company builds economies of scale in its consumer and capital markets businesses, it will realize enhanced profitability by taking market share from its weaker competitors,” said Cassidy.
The analyst also highlighted JPM’s well-diversified business model that derives revenue from Consumer and Community banking (41% of Q1 2024 revenue), Corporate and Investment Banking (32%), Asset and Wealth Management (12%), Commercial Banking (9%) and Corporate (5%).
Cassidy ranks No. 128 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 63% of the time, delivering an average return of 14.7%. (See JPM Stock Charts on TipRanks) 
Walmart
Finally, we will look at big-box retailer Walmart (WMT). Earlier this year, the company increased its dividend by 9% to 83 cents per share. This increase represented Walmart’s 51st consecutive annual hike.
In the fiscal first quarter, WMT returned $2.73 billion to shareholders through $1.67 billion in dividends and $1.06 billion in share repurchases. With a payout ratio of 37.5%, the company sees the possibility of further growth in its dividend.
Recently, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe reiterated a buy rating on WMT with a price target of $77, saying that the stock remains his firm’s top pick. The analyst thinks that Walmart is in the early phase of its artificial intelligence and automation journey.
Tarlowe thinks that AI and automation could help double the company’s operating income by fiscal year 2029 compared to fiscal year 2023, delivering more than $20 billion of incremental earnings before interest and taxes. The analyst expects the increased operating income to be driven by several factors, including automation efficiencies, advertising, theft mitigation and autonomous driving.
Among the recent AI developments, the analyst highlighted WMT’s strategic investment and partnership with Fox Robotics, which provides the world’s first autonomous forklift. He also mentioned the deployment of automatic receipt verification arches at Sam’s Club as part of the company’s AI strategy. 
“Overall, we expect WMT to command an increasingly large share of customer spending through bolstered omnichannel capabilities, partnerships, and services,” said Tarlowe.
Tarlowe ranks No. 266 among more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 67% of the time, delivering an average return of 19.7%. (See WMT Technical Analysis on TipRanks) 
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A logo sign outside of a facility occupied by Smith & Nephew in Austin, Texas.
SIPPL Sipa USA | AP

Company: Smith & Nephew (SN.-GB)

Business: Smith & Nephew is a British portfolio medical technology company that operates worldwide. The company develops, manufactures, markets and sells medical devices and services. Its segments include Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and Ear, Nose and Throat, as well as Advanced Wound Management. Its Orthopedics segment includes a range of hip and knee implants to replace damaged or worn joints, robotics-assisted and digital enabling technologies, as well as trauma products used to stabilize severe fractures and correct hard tissue deformities. Its Sports Medicine and ENT businesses offer advanced products and instruments used to repair or remove soft tissue. Its Advanced Wound Management portfolio provides a comprehensive set of products to meet broad and complex clinical needs.
Stock Market Value: ~9.6 billion British pounds (11 pounds per share). The stock also trades in the U.S. as an American depositary receipt under the ticker “SNN.”

Activist: Cevian Capital

Percentage Ownership:  5.11%
Average Cost: 9.68 pounds
Activist Commentary: Cevian Capital, founded in 2002, is an international investment firm acquiring significant ownership positions in publicly listed European companies, where long-term value can be enhanced through active ownership. Cevian Capital is a long-term, hands-on owner of European-listed companies. It is often called a “constructive activist” and is the largest and most experienced dedicated activist investor in Europe. Cevian’s strategy is to help its companies become better and more competitive over the long term, and to earn its return through an increase in the real long-term value of the companies. The firm’s work at companies is typically supported by other owners and stakeholders.

What’s happening

Cevian acquired a 5.11% position in the company because the firm thinks that Smith & Nephew operates a fundamentally attractive business. The investor thinks there could be significant potential upside from improving the operating performance of the company’s businesses.

Behind the scenes

Smith & Nephew is a global leader in medical technology. The company develops and sells medical devices and services across three segments, maintaining a dominant global market position in each: Orthopedics, Sports Medicine and ENT, and Advanced Wound Management. Smith & Nephew is well known for its product quality and its brand perception is very strong. In addition, the company operates in fundamentally growing and consolidated markets with good competitive dynamics. In general, there is very predictable customer behavior as well as stable market shares for the industry leaders. In 2023, the company generated $5.55 billion in revenue, of which 40% came from Ortho, 31% from Sports Med and 29% from Wound. However, the profitability profile is quite different. After allocating overhead Ortho only has 11% operating margins, while Sports and Wound have twice that with 22% operating margins.

Despite its leading market position and the favorable industry dynamics, Smith & Nephew has not generated shareholder value for many years – down 44% since Jan. 1, 2020 and off by 33% since its Jan. 1, 2021 post-Covid price. This is not surprising, and the reason seems obvious: operating margins in its largest business, Ortho. In 2019, Ortho had operating margins of 23%, which declined to 13% in 2020. They are now at 11% today. This is due to self-inflicted issues relating to supply chain management, logistics and manufacturing causing back orders and either the implants or the required tools not being at the right place at the right time. This issue is somewhat unique to Ortho as it is a much more complicated business than Wound and Sport and requires the timely delivery of not only a variety of sizes of implants, components and devices for each procedure, but also the specific tools associated with the procedure. Another major contributor to the company’s missteps is that Smith & Nephew has seen a significant amount of management turnover over the past five years.
Management has now released a 12-point plan of which a major component is fixing Ortho to regain momentum and win market share. While this is a step in the right direction and this management team may be able to successfully implement this plan, it is not going to happen with continued management turnover. It is impossible to implement a long-term operational plan when there is a new CEO every few years. This is a company that clearly needs an activist, but the good news is that Cevian is the perfect activist for a company like this. The two things Smith & Nephew needs more than anything is a long-term mindset and operational improvements. Cevian is a long-term activist – the firm’s average holding period is four to five years, but often it will hold positions for eight to 10 years – with an operational performance focus. The firm has extensive history of helping companies improve operations either as an active shareholder or board member. There is no reason why the company should not be able to boost the operating margins of the Ortho division at least back to its pre-pandemic level and maybe even higher, closer to peers like Stryker and Zimmer Biomet.
We expect that Cevian would look to assist in this endeavor from a board level because they take board seats in most of their activist positions. Currently, Cevian’s professionals serve on the boards of 10 portfolio companies in six different countries. Given the firm’s experience and the fact that it is the company’s second-largest shareholder, we would expect that Cevian would be able to get a board seat here the way it does in most of its engagements – amicably or by invitation.
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments. More